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Up the River (1930)

Plot Summary
Two prisoners, Saint Louis and Dannemora Dan, escape during a theatrical production in order to go to the aid of Steve, a former prisoner whose past is about to be exposed by the man who framed Judy unless Steve agrees to help him commit another crime.
Written by Ed Stephan

Trivia
This is the only movie in which Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy co-star. Although Tracy and Bogart were good friends, they never appeared in another movie together, as Bogart was tied to a contract with Warner Bros. for much of his career while Tracy was bound first to Fox, and then (most famously) to MGM. When the freelance era rolled around in the 1950s and both were free of their studio contracts, the two talked about co-starring together in a picture, but according to Tracy's lover Katharine Hepburn, they could never agree on who would get top billing (although Tracy was the more respected thespian, Bogart was more popular at the box office; however, after playing second-fiddle to Clark Gable for many years at MGM, Tracy wasn't about to accept second billing at that time in his career). Hepburn recalled they considered a suggested compromise that would have created an "X"-shaped credit in which Humphrey Tracy would have co-starred with Spencer Bogart, when read normally.

The first of Humphrey Bogart's feature-length films to be released, on October 12, 1930. His second, "A Devil with Women", was released six days later, on October 18.

This is the first John Ford film in which Spencer Tracy appeared: their second collaboration took place three decades later, when Tracy starred in Ford's The Last Hurrah. It is strange to realize that these two great Irish American icons only collaborated two times (Tracy narrated How the West Was Won, one of the sequences of which was shot by Ford, but that doesn't count as a true collaboration), but for most of their careers, they were bound to different studios, Ford to 20th Century-Fox and Tracy to M.G.M. By the time the freelance era rolled around in the late 1950s, Tracy was appearing in very few movies.

Spencer Tracy received a 2-week leave of absence from a hit Broadway show in order to appear in this film. This required the film to be shot under a very tight production schedule.

Broadway producer Herman Shumlin granted Spencer Tracy two weeks leave from his hit drama "The Last Mile" after the actor appealed to him for the opportunity to work for John Ford in this picture.

Up the River is a low-key comedy drama starring Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy very early in their careers. An early talkie directed by John Ford, it was apparently going to be a drama until The Big House (1930) beat it to the punch.. so it was rewritten as a comedy.

Bogart plays young Steve Jordan, a trusty in a mid-Western prison who comes from a well-heeled New England family. His family believe he’s in China. Tracy (in his first Hollywood film) plays a feted baseballer (Saint Louis) who is brought back to the same prison after having escaped from another prison with his simple sidekick, Dannemora Dan (Warren Hymer). Steve falls in love at first sight with a newly received prisoner in the women’s section, Judy Fields (Claire Luce), who has landed in prison after taking the rap for Frosby (Morgan Wallace), a much-older swindler with whom she was teamed. Steve and Judy get engaged after two brief meetings; the Warden kindly allows them a third on the day he is paroled.

Steve returns home. Frosby tracks him down, sets up his scam in the same town and threatens to expose Steve to his mother if he blows the whistle. Judy asks Saint Louis for help… not such a difficult task as conveniently the men’s and women’s exercise yards are separated only by bars. Saint and Dan escape again, this time during a concert in the prison, and head straight to New England where they manage to sort things out with the blackmailing Frosby… and then surrender themselves back into prison just in time for Saint to take his place in a much-awaited baseball match against a rival prison.

It does have a number of features that distinguish it from most other prison movies. For starters, it is an extraordinarily benign, almost-utopian prison. Then there’s the warden’s 8-year-old daughter Jean, for example, (in real life the daughter of Lewis Lawes, the Warden of Sing Sing), who plays unsupervised out in the yard with all the male inmates, doing cartwheels and showing off her bloomers. There’s the prison’s baseball mascot, a zebra - the only zebra ever to have a role in a prison movie, as far as I’m aware. A big brass band. And a foolish, upper-class welfare worker, at whom much fun is poked as she dispenses apples, magazines and judgmental opinions to the prisoners, and is the unwitting means through which kites are trafficked from the women’s section to the men’s.

It’s not a standout prison film by any means, but it stands out as being quite different to other films of it era.

Best WishesKeithLondon- England

The post was edited 2 times, last by ethanedwards (Feb 10th 2017, 11:56am).

The Mrs. and I were looking at John Ford movies for 1930, and thought the movie might be, "Up the River", as several pictures we saw had the same type of stone work as your picture, plus everyone was wearing the same kind of cloths.

Re: MYSTERY FILM with JW?

Here are quotes from a Peter Bogdanovich interview with John Wayne that shows he was actually on the set of Up the River. This adds credence to the still of what could be Wayne in the background:

A funny thing happened with Ford after The Big Trail. He was a strange character, you know. After I did that picture, I came back, and he was making Up the River. I went over and said, “Hi, coach.” Nothing. I thought he didn’t hear me. So I figured, Oh, well, he didn’t even see me. The next time I saw him I went, “Hi, coach, hi.” And again I didn’t get anything. So the next time I just went right up in front of him and went, “Hi, coach.” And he turned and talked to somebody else. I thought, That’s that — he won’t speak to me. I don’t know how the hell I can communicate.

About two years later, I was in Catalina with Ward, having a belt, and Barbara [Ford], his daughter — she was a little girl then — she ran in and said, ‘Daddy wants to see you.” I said, “Whoa, wait a minute, Barbara, you got the wrong boy — must be Ward.” She said, “No, it’s you, Duke.” So I said, “Yeah, honey, run along, you know this is a bar.” So his wife, Mary Ford, came to the door and she said, “Duke, come here. Jack is expecting you out there.” I said, “All right.” So I went out to the Araner, his boat, and I go aboard — I remember Jim Tully was there and four or five guys — and Jack was in the middle of a goddamn story, and he looked up at me and said, “Hi, Duke, sit down.” And to this goddamn day I don’t know why he didn’t speak to me for two years.

Re: MYSTERY FILM with JW?

John Ford may have been a brilliant director, but he was also really a jerk, and this is just one more story to further cement my opinion in that regard. Yet in spite of it, he somehow developed a great loyalty among people as well. Personally, I am hard pressed to understand why that is.

Re: MYSTERY FILM with JW?

With this little revelation that John Wayne was on the set of Up The River, combined with the screen shot that Elly found from that film of what definitely looks like John Wayne, I think this is another piece of important evidence that shows that he just might of had a bit part in Up The River. I am about 85% sure that he was.

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them" It may be time worn, but it's the best life-creed I know.

Re: MYSTERY FILM with JW?

With this little revelation that John Wayne was on the set of Up The River, combined with the screen shot that Elly found from that film of what definitely looks like John Wayne, I think this is another piece of important evidence that shows that he just might of had a bit part in Up The River. I am about 85% sure that he was.

Another revelation of this, is that, it can now be said that Duke was in a film with Humphrey Bogart, and Spencer Tracy.

Re: MYSTERY FILM with JW?

I am currently reading Print The Legend - The Life and Times of John Ford by Scott Eyman.

When discussing 'Up the River' Eyman says that Ford brought Spencer Tracy from New York to star in the film and treated him like royalty.

Eyman also quotes that during the making of the film

'During production, John Wayne came back on the lot from long weeks spent filming The Big Trail. The starring part in a Western epic was a big break for a twenty-three year old kid, but Ford wasn't happy for him. As a matter of fact, when Wayne went over to say hello, Ford cut him dead. Then he did it again. A confused Wayne retreated.'

In view of the above I think I am on solid ground by saying that there is no way that Wayne appeared as an extra in Up The River

Re: MYSTERY FILM with JW?

I am currently reading Print The Legend - The Life and Times of John Ford by Scott Eyman.

Eyman also quotes that during the making of the film

'During production, John Wayne came back on the lot from long weeks spent filming The Big Trail. The starring part in a Western epic was a big break for a twenty-three year old kid, but Ford wasn't happy for him. As a matter of fact, when Wayne went over to say hello, Ford cut him dead. Then he did it again. A confused Wayne retreated.'

Regards

Arthur

Well Eyman did not even get JW AGE right "twenty-three year old kid"

The point I keep making about basic inaccuracies in MOST of the books written about JW

Elly

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